Teach Me How to Mommy

Sometimes first days of work involve unpredictable doctor's appointments, double ear infections, and a run-in with one of the very first students I've ever had.  They can also harvest the best, deepest, most heart-felt hugs of your life. Had a full-circle moment when the medicine I needed to treat Lucy's ear aches was given to me by one of the first students I ever taught. She was in my third period class in 2008 and sat in the front row.  But she was a tough girl.  She was not mean, not disrespectful, but always skeptical and always making sure I did just what I was supposed to do.  She was always there, but didn't always smile.  She is someone I'll always remember (whether she helped me at the pharmacy or not). When she saw me she smiled big and said, "I was just talking about you earlier."  Earlier?  As in it hasn't been over 5 years since I've seen you last?  She's doing well and she helped me get my kid better.  Who knew that the ve

Determined to make this week still feel like summer, I tried extra hard to make my afternoons with the kids really fun.  Whether it was going swimming or going to a welcome back to school bash, every afternoon I had something planned to help ease the pain of our new schedule.  I exhausted myself (and them too) but I think they caught on to the sentiment - mommy isn't going to be here every hour, but she will be here when it counts.  Well, at least I hope that's how they feel. So, what happens when you plan an evening adventure to an outdoor eating venue and it's closed (until April)? You end up watching your son pour out a salt shaker while you order Wendy's for them on a random Tuesday night.  I don't do fast-food so this was a big deal, but the kids were hungry and it was getting late.  Surprise, surprise they ate well.   Also, not that I should have one but the frosty I had was out-of-this-world! I wrote last week about how going back to

Amy and I are not saying good-bye to summer just yet.   We will do that in video form later on, yet the time has come for one of us to return to work (and that’s me).   ·                  So while my husband is downstairs in the basement with a bunch of men creating fantasy football teams (no seriously, it’s what I am currently dealing with), I am reflecting on the best summer of my life.   Much of it was chronicled on the blog and I don’t want to be redundant.   There’s plenty I didn’t do, but I also don’t feel like talking about that either. ·              Instead I am choosing to attempt to permanently etch this summer into my brain.  The two thousand +  pictures I have help a lot.  I am choosing to let them run over and over in my mind while I sit through endless meetings tomorrow.  I am choosing to get excited to see my co-workers and friends and I am choosing to start the year off on the right foot because my “new” kids will need me.  I am choosing to drop my ki

I know it's important to "make the time".  I've been working on it all summer.  But what if time is kind of running out (or at least running low). Recently anyone I come in contact with asks the big question "When is baby number three coming?" Wait, just joking (no one EVER asks that).  It's: "When do you go back?" It's soon ok.  It's Monday.  It hurts when I have to talk about it, but thanks for asking. Instead of wallowing, I've been squeezing every good minute out of this week.  We've done lots of fun stuff and then also some regular stuff, but we've done it all together.  I've noticed that Lucy has gotten just a bit more special attention this week because of the nature of some of my errands (haircuts, etc.).  So, on this night I told Jerry I was taking out our son and we would be back when we would be back.  I said bye to my favorite girl and headed out with no plan. We just ended up at the park, a perf

Kelly is our most featured guest-poster.  In other amazing news she came back to CT!  She's written about being a new mom , mom instincts and going back to work .  Now she's, "home" and starting a new chapter by "staying home" and moving forward with a few of her passions.  I say a few because unlike many people (ok, me) she's good at so many things.  Read on for more... So I have decided that I am too old to sleep in a sleeping bag on the hardwood floor, even just for one night. Let me back up… … We decided to make the move from RI to CT to be closer to family. Our house sold in 2 weeks (thank goodness, it was hard to keep picking up all of the toys for showings). We would close after the school year, pack up a truck, move in with my parents’ in CT, and put our stuff in a storage unit. It makes me laugh to think about our whole little house packed into one tiny (ok large) room, I wonder what all of our stuff is doing in there? The Mayor of

So I have a secret... We live across the street from a lovely widow.  She lives on the "pond" side of the street - the water-view and she has a pool.  In June, she mentioned (in passing) that if we ever wanted to use the pool we could.  I kindly welcomed the offer, but never took her up on it. Until this week. She works really long hours and because she is a widow her house is empty throughout most of the day (save visits from her son or landscaping company). She did offer, it's so f'ing hot and I hate the sound of the air conditioners, so...the kids and I were in the pool every day this week. Have I mentioned that it's beautiful?  It's kidney shaped, tiled, heated and clean.  It's deep, but not long, perfect for practicing the doggy paddle. Every day this week the kids have practiced swimming and I can now go in and not hold them all the time.  They literally can swim (with swimmies).  I went under, practiced my Olympics-worthy dives and float

Just a quick note.  Amy and I planned one last mombloggers night before we start back to work.  Well, maybe we can fit one more in...but this one will be hard to beat. We started the evening by grabbing a quick drink at J. Tims.  I parked about a mile away from the door, yet we still found seats.  The quick stop was made even sweeter by meeting up with Bobby (our friend's husband).  He was such good company.  We had quite a #sess on our Olympics obsession.  Who knew you could spend an entire happy hour on how amazing the women's gymnastics team is? Their skills, their smiles, their make-up, their voices, THEIR BODIES! My God those bodies! No, this is no exaggeration this is exactly where our seats were.  Ouch! Anyways, even though we were 15 minutes early the only seats left were the ones in the front row.  We considered another movie (What the F is Sausage Fest?).  We also considered going back to the bar.  But the purpose of this whole thing was to watch Bad Moms

This morning the kids and I went to breakfast and then went to a local store that has fruits, veggies, some farm animals and cute little Melissa and Doug things.  We go often - it's one of those regular joints you can always add to a morning or afternoon to "stretch it out a bit." The store connects to a warehouse in the back where they keep flowers and materials.  The doors were left wide open to this area.  John saw it first and noticed three (THREE) little toddler tractors and battery-operated cars.  They were John Deere and Mickey Mouse and were obviously for a little boy just John's age.  It obvious to me that they were for the worker's kids.  You know, they weren't put there for my kids - although in my kids' eyes I hadn't taken them to a little market, I had taken them to Disney World. I am the adult so I could tell customers probably weren't allowed back there, but to my kids the doors were open and there were toys.  It's a pl

Amy wrote a really raw, honest post about her choice (emotionally, financially, contractually) to send Colin to daycare twice a week over the summer.  I bet it was a hard one to write, because she opened herself up to judgement from the moms of the world who judge anyone for anything, but especially judge based on daycare situations. I don't judge Amy (because she's my best friend), and also over the years I have felt very competitive with people and their daycare situations.  It doesn't feel good. Ultimately, no one wins. Everyone has a different situation and I feel like as a whole we are all just trying to do what's best for our kids and the family as an entire unit. Jerry and I chose a daycare that does not require parents to keep their kids in daycare over the summer (or vacations) if they are a teacher or have a unique work circumstances.  I know a kid in John's class whose father is a golfer, so in the winter he is home and so is his kid.  This is hard to

Wednesday 8/3/16 You guys! I'm the worst. Twice a week, during the summer, I bring Colin to daycare. The "rules" tell me this is wrong....that I'm required to feel guilty about this.   I don't.  When I tell people he's going to daycare, I VERY quickly go into a canned response about how, "it's only for lunch and nap time," "I think it's good for him," "It'll "save his spot for the fall," "It keeps him on a schedule," blah blah blah..... but you know what .... while that's all true,  DO YOU REALLY want to KNOW WHAT... even if it wasn't true, I want to bring him. I need those few hours!  I look forward to them. You how I know this... because Colin hasn't been to day care in almost three weeks. They have been an amazing three weeks.  We had NO schedule, we watched too many hours of Winnie the Pooh and Minions together, we Snapchatted WAYY too much, had too many snacks, we skipped ba

My temporary-stay-at-home mom status this summer has been an adventure.  We are currently doing the beach life thing and it is equal parts amazing and tiring.  No complaints here, but I am allowed to yawn right?  Anyways, before we left I got to thinking that much of my identity is tied to the fact that I live with, care for and am attached to two toddlers 24/7.  In case anyone didn't know, I've compiled a list of tell-tale signs. 1.  If you get peed on you just keep going.  This weekend we went to Lake Compounce and while waiting in line for the merry-go-round John peed on me.  Yes, he was wearing a diaper - No I have no clue why it came out more like a flood and less like a stream.  I didn't bring a change of clothes (for me) and they still wanted to go on rides.  What's a mom to do?  Shut up, air dry and keep on trucking. (Sidenote - I didn't even end up showering until 10 that night, oh well). 2. My phone tells me every night my storage is full, but I CAN&#